The Development of Robot Industry Still Has a Long Way to Go

2016-11-29

The number of robots per 10,000 workers in China has been increasing rapidly. China has a big demand for robots, but is not a major robot manufacturer. The main reason is the lack of robot core technology. The development of robot industry started with industrial robots as the first step, mainly used in the field of manufacturing industry. With the expansion of the scope of application, consumer robots and special robots are becoming a new field of the development of robot industry. At present, there is a shortage of workers in some sectors of manufacturing industry in which robots are needed whereas it is only a local demand but not an overall one. Many technologies in the robot industry are in line with the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry and technology accumulation and innovation are very important. Without technical support, it is easy to form bubbles which cannot solve the problem of industrial development or satisfy consumers’ demand. The development of robot industry also requires a solid industrial technology base for self-management rather than working hard but to no avail. Traditional manufacturing industry takes up a larger part of China’s manufacturing sector. At present, the main issue for solution is automation, followed by digitization and intelligence, and intelligence cannot be realized at one go. Efforts should be made to moderately develop industrial robots in light of the actual performance of major industries and enterprises, rather than conducting a haphazard development. Faced with challenges, the manufacturing industry should become integrated with the existing automatic production line, while taking into account factors relating to cost, security and efficiency as well as humachine cooperation and the protection of workers. In addition, the manufacturing industry should become integrated with the existing production system to meet individualized demand.